Jefferson Parish public schools' standardized test scores in third through eighth grades improved in 2014, with an average pass rate of 67 percent across four subject areas on the LEAP and iLEAP tests. That's a one-point increase over last year, and the parish continued to narrow its gap with the statewide average, which remained flat this year at 69 percent.

It's worth noting that the improvement in Jefferson came despite new, more rigorous versions of the tests. Jefferson's pass rate has improved by seven points in four years, according to a school system news release.

Yet middle school students continue to lag their statewide peers by more significant margins. Sixth- and seventh-grade students trail the state averages by an average of 5.5 points, a gap that is particularly noteworthy because fifth-grade students in Jefferson are outperforming those across the state by 2.5 percentage points.

Jefferson is trying out kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school models to ease the transition, from fifth to sixth grade. Sixth graders at Ellender Elmentary and Middle School in Marrero, the first k-8 public school in the parish, improved their LEAP pass rates by 38.5 percent in 2013. School officials say it's too soon to know whether that success was duplicated at Ellender and five other schools this year.